Mountains, movements & motives: guidebook discourse and the shaping of tourist experience in the Lake District fells 1778-1900

Shaw, Christian (2017) Mountains, movements & motives: guidebook discourse and the shaping of tourist experience in the Lake District fells 1778-1900. Masters dissertation, University of Cumbria. Item availability may be restricted.

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Abstract

Historical analyses of tourism in the Lake District have tended to focus on the evidence of literary sources and journal accounts. Given the recent award of World Heritage status to the Lake District as a ‘cultural landscape’ of outstanding universal significance, it was felt that an examination of the texts that help form the tourist experience in the mountains was needed. The research examines the increasing significance of the mountains in the Lake District tourist experience through a discourse analysis of Lake District guidebooks between 1778 and 1900. The study focuses on how the mountains are portrayed, analyses how activity among them is prescribed and conducted, and considers how these elements impact upon tourist motive. It has been found that, from the mid-19th century, the guidebook prioritises a physical, bodily response to the mountains over the perceptive and emotional responses that characterised earlier texts. It is argued that the later emphasis on physical performance and health in the guidebook reflects the wider Victorian interest in rational recreation as an instrument of social progress. From the second quarter of the 19th century onwards, the portrayal of the mountains and the direction of activity among them is increasingly driven by geographical information and maps. This, it is argued, is evidence of the incursion of the apparatus of the nation state into the guidebook discourse. By the late 19th century, the guidebook relies heavily on maps and employs rational methods of presentation and direction which support and encourage instrumental objectives.

Item Type:	Thesis/Dissertation (Masters)
Departments:	Academic Departments > Science, Natural Resources & Outdoor Studies (SNROS) > Outdoor Studies
Additional Information:	Dissertation presented in part fulfilment of the requirements of the Degree of Master of Arts in Outdoor and Experiential Learning, University of Cumbria, 2017.
Depositing User:	Anna Lupton
Date Deposited:	20 Sep 2018 13:31
Last Modified:	12 Jan 2024 16:45
URI:	https://insight.cumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/4094